


The wonder of love, the soul of love and the heart of love

by junkerin



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alpha Jensen, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt Jared Padalecki, Hurt Jensen Ackles, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Jared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:36:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8998582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junkerin/pseuds/junkerin
Summary: Jensen and Misha are the alpha and beta of a pack. A new law forces them to take an omega (Jared) this is the story of their long jorney to happyness





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the christmas gift for blackbluerose. I hope she likes it.
> 
> And this is also the fill for this prompt:http://spnkink-meme.livejournal.com/117822.html
> 
> It is finall betaed by the fabulous Cappy712.
> 
> All other errors are mine

Alpha = male or female can sire a child  
Beta = male or female can conceive during their heat  
Omega = basically “normal” people who can shift

Chapter 1  
It was past lunch time and the kids from kindergarten had gathered around Misha their Pack Beta and teacher:  
“Once upon a time there lived a beautiful beta princess. But she was vain and proud and declined every mating offer from many alphas.   
One day the bravest and strongest alpha prince asked for the honor to marry her and even if the princess felled in love with the handsome prince, her proud heart refused to give in. “Bring me the Wonder of Love, the Soul of Love and the Heart of Love and I will love you till the day I die.” The princess told the prince. The prince went on a dangerous and almost deadly quest to gather the desired objects and after a while, he had all three of them. He lied them down at the princess' feet and the pride of the princess melted away like snow in the sun and left nothing but love behind. They lived together as alpha and beta, mated and good and they lived happily ever after.” 

Misha finished his fairy tale, some of the children had drifted off to sleep but a little beta girl was still wide awake and raised her hand:  
“Beta Misha?”  
“Yes, darling.”  
“How does their omega fit in?” she inquired.  
“Well that is the problem darling, alphas and betas are enough. The prince and the princess don’t need a 3rd wheel.

 

Jensen’s and Misha’s San Mateo Pack was nothing special, average size, not too progressive, not too conservative. They even had a couple of omegas in their pack; all mated of course. 

It wasn’t that Jensen as the Pack Alpha wasn’t ambition enough but his interest in green clean energy came to a sudden stop after he learned, he needed an engineer and his venture into Zuse machines stopped when he saw the huge machines making too much noise. So it was basically the same farming the San Mateo Pack had done the last three hundred centuries. Well, it had worked for his ancestors and it would probably work for his kids if he and Misha ever got that lucky.

It wasn’t Jensen fault that his father had insisted that Jensen would study pack law and leadership as the future pack alpha it had been his duty. 

“They can’t be serious,” Jensen said.   
He was staring at the TV screen where the news was still running.  
“I… I don’t understand,” Misha admitted.   
“The government ordered that every pack alpha, mated or not, has to take an unmated omega in.”  
“What do you mean – take in -?”  
“To mate.”  
“What! NO! They can’t make you – us – do that.” Misha objected.  
“Well, they just did.”  
“We don’t want, we don’t need an omega. My grandmother always insisted that omegas meant bad luck.”  
“For your grandmother, everything meant bad luck,” Jensen answered. He didn’t like the idea one bit but he had no idea how they could avoid it.  
“How… I mean… how..?” Misha started unable to finish the sentence.  
“Are they getting the omegas mated?” Misha nodded he had heard only the end of the news.  
“As I understood every pack alpha gets two weeks time to find a suitable omega. After that, you get assigned one.” 

That night Jensen and Misha made love like there was no tomorrow. But they knew when the morning came they had to face reality again.

 

Jensen had become pack alpha when he had turned 26. He had mated, claimed and married Misha two years later. It had been love at the first sight and now four years later they were still madly in love with each other. 

During the next few days, the news was full of omegas that were mated off and where the pack didn’t suffer any side effects. Obviously, the belief of Misha’s grandmother, that omegas meant bad luck, were still quite common.   
“Maybe the packs are more progressive than we think,” Jensen told Misha.  
“What do you expect? It is 1978 and not the middle age. We no longer kill omega babies and bury them in the backyard because they have no knot or go into heat.” Misha agreed.

Jensen and Misha wanted to wait, maybe this whole law would be soon over and there was a chance that there were less unmated omegas than pack alphas. So maybe Jensen and Misha would be lucky and…

The telephone rang.  
“Hello?”  
“Alpha Ackles?”  
“Yes.”  
“This is George Padalecki from San Antonio Pack. We met last year in Washington D.C.”  
“Oh yes Sir, I remember.”  
San Antonio was the largest and most progressive pack in the States. They were rich and modern and even if Jensen could remember talking to George Padalecki he was surprised, that he had remembered Jensen.

“I need your help son. I’m sure you heard of the omega act.”  
“Yes.”  
“Well, I have an omega son, Jared. He is 24 and unmated. I would be really grateful if you and your beta would consider him.”  
“Sir, not that we are not honored, but wouldn’t you think a pack closer to home would be better?” Jensen tried to avoid the unavoidable.   
“Jensen our neighbor is Pellegrino’s Pack and he already made some inquiries.”

Pellegrino’s pack was the most traditional pack Jensen ever had seen. He had been shocked how the betas were treated and he didn’t want to imagine how they would treat an omega. 

“Ahm, yes I see,” Jensen said; this felt wrong on so many levels, Jensen didn’t even know where to start. He couldn’t mate an omega only after talking to his father. And more important, he didn’t want to. He was happy with Misha. But George Padalecki thought of it as an agreement.   
“That’s great Jensen! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Since this stupid law passed, Jared is desperate he wanted to go to Europe where the status doesn’t matter, but his mom…” George trailed off, as he realized that he was babbling.   
“Well anyhow, we will arrive at your pack tomorrow. If anything still is unsolved we can talk about.” George finished the call and hung up.

Misha was furious. How dare of George Padalecki, to push Jensen to take this omega. Yes, his grandmother had been right, they were bad luck. A male omega couldn’t get pregnant and he had no knot. It wasn’t even clear if they could sire a child, but it was probably. A female omega had no heat but could at least get pregnant. Misha had no idea why nature made them; alphas and betas were more than enough. 

God, how he hated this Jared guy and he hadn’t even met him yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
A new shiny town car pulled up in front of Jensens and Misha’s house. Jensen opened the front door to greet the other alpha and his future mate.   
“Alpha Padalecki, welcome to our home; it is a pleasure and an honor to have you here. Omega Jarrod, welcome to our pack.”  
“It’s Jared.” The young man corrected. Misha gasped such disrespectfulness from an omega to a pack alpha. But Jensen didn’t seem to mind at least he kept his cool.  
“My apology Jared, sometimes I have trouble to remember names. This is Misha my beta mate. I hope we can all be – very good friends.”

Jared understood his father and he was grateful that he had tried to find a more progressive pack than Pellegrino’s. He shivered when he remembered two years ago at a convention in San Antonio, Pellegrino had him cornered and groped between his legs:  
“So it is true.” He had said disgust and lust fighting in his face for dominance, “Your still complete. Our male omegas are neutered between six and sixteen. So they can’t reproduce. No one wants an omega.” Jared had been lucky his father showed up looking for him but Pellegrino’s words frightened him to the core. 

When the omega act had passed Pellegrino had called the same night trying to talk to Jared but his father had interfered telling Pellegrino Jared was promised to another alpha than he had started to make phone calls. 

Obviously, Jensen had been his father first choice and now he was here in San Mateo. It was a small, nice, clean town, nothing like the big bustling city San Antonio was. His father had told Jared everything he knew about Jensen Ackles and his beta Misha, which wasn’t much. 

For his family and friends, it had never been a problem that Jared was an omega. The problem lied with the alphas, who were frightened by the rising numbers of omegas. In times of his grandfather there had been one omega born every ten years or so, now the number had increased to 10-30 each year. And the newest scientific research indicated that the were population was changing. Whether it was a new species or simply becoming alpha/beta and omega nobody knew. The thing was the alphas were afraid and fought to keep the upper hand. 

And so Jared had become the victim of the so-called Omega act. It would have been easier if he could have mated to an alpha from his own pack, but it had to be a pack alpha because an omega needed special care and protection.

Yeah sure – bull shit.

Jare could take care of himself just fine. He didn’t need an alpha saving him, he was no damsel in distress (read beta) in need for an alpha. 

They had stopped in front of a nice little house and the two most beautiful men Jared had ever seen stepped outside.  
“Oh did I forget to mention they were quite good looking.” His father said with a big smile.  
“Yes, somehow you forgot,” Jared responded dryly.  
“Jared please behave. This mating has to work. If Pellegrino finds out where you are, he will want proof of the mating and we both know he would like to get his hands on you. Ackles is a good man, but he doesn’t know you. Behave. He didn’t want this and his beta looks like he’s gonna kill you.”  
“Yes, Sir.”

 

“I hope we can all be – very good friends,” Jensen said.  
Misha wanted to throw up. This man or rather a boy had ridiculous floppy longish hair that always fell into his eyes. Eyes that couldn’t decide what color they wanted to be, beautiful eyes Misha had to admit, with a big smile and dimples.

Right now he, Jensen and Alpha Padalecki were talking about Jensen’s pipedream on solar and wind energy. Only it didn’t sound like a pipedream. This Jared guy already had a master in engineering and had worked for a little while at a solar plant.

The thing was, Misha could see himself (and Jensen) fall for this young man. He was smart, good looking and funny. But he didn’t want to.

“Do you work Misha?” Jared asked him.  
“Beta Misha – yes I’m a teacher here in our pack school.”  
“My apology Beta Misha, in our pack we are not that formal.” Jared bowed his head.   
“I think it’s late Jared and I will retire to our hotel rooms. We see you tomorrow for the mating ceremony. Good night.” Georg Padalecki said getting up.

After they had left Misha stared angrily at Jared’s seat.   
“Just to be clear about that: I don’t want him here and I don’t want him in our relationship. It is my true belief that an alpha and a beta are more than enough. I don’t want him here.”  
“We don’t have a real choice here Misha,” Jensen answered.

Even if he had talked to Jared and Alpha Padalecki, he didn’t want another mate and being forced to do it went against his nature and made him resent Jared only more.

 

The mating ceremony was a dry affair.  
They went to the courthouse, signed some papers and then the four of them had lunch together in a restaurant before George was on his way back home. A pack as large as San Antonio couldn’t go long without its alpha. And suddenly Jared was all alone, married to an alpha he barely knew, in a foreign pack. Jared didn’t know what to expect but he hoped, that the three of them would be happy together.  
Somehow.  
Some day.  
He was sure once the got to know each other better they would all fall in love. He had made up his mind last night all was better than being castrated and in Pellegrino’s pack. Jared was determined to make this mating work. 

“Where shall I put my stuff?” Jared asked Misha and Jensen when they entered the house.  
“You're what?” Jensen asked irritated.  
“I don’t have much but I brought two suitcases, just clothes, and some books.”

Jensen and Misha exchanged a look.  
“Ahm…” pause nothing.   
They had known he was coming and didn’t so much prepared some space in their house. Jared swallowed, he knew Jensen and Misha didn’t want him here but it wasn’t his decision either. He hadn’t chosen this, he had only decided to make the best out of a bad situation. If he could have it his way he would be back in San Antonio in his apartment hanging out with his friends, working, clubbing living the life of a young unmated were. 

Jared swallowed the silence still stretched on.  
“The attic,” Misha said after a while, Jensen seemed a little surprised but didn’t say anything. Jared followed Misha through the house: “Kitchen, living room, my office, Jensen's office.” Misha pointed out as they passed the rooms they went upstairs. “Master bedroom, guest room, bathroom and here it goes up to the attic.” 

It wasn’t a storage room, no but it wasn’t a guest room or 2nd bedroom either. There was a bed, a drawer and a lot of boxes and other stuff. It looked like an unused and a little bit dusty attic that Misha had just remembered.

Jared tried to smile, it could be worse, he thought they could have put him in the basement.   
“You may stay up here … and … we call you when dinner is ready. Here is some stuff so you can make your bed.” Jensen said he turned around and left the attic together with Misha, leaving Jared all by himself.  
Dinner? It wasn’t even four p.m. Jared looked around and decided to unpack maybe he would feel more at home then.

“Misha darling, how can I help you?”   
“Sent him away.”  
“We would just get another omega.”  
“I don’t want him here,” Misha said.  
“Neither do I.”  
Unseen to both of them and as silent as he had come to Jared retreated back to the attic.

 

It was dinner time. Misha had set the table at the counter in the kitchen. The only problem was there were only two matching chairs and Jared had either to stand or to sit on a slightly too short office chair.   
“Jared there is something we need to discuss.” Jensen started “in order to make this mating legal and undeniable I have to claim you. Misha and I talked about it and we think it’s the best we get over with it. It will also help your standing in our pack when my claim on you is clearly visible.”  
“You want to mark me?” Jared asked a little bit shocked he had thought the were a progressive pack.  
“Misha wears my mark and I wear his. So I will claim and mark you. After dinner please prepare yourself so you can take my knot and be in our bedroom at 10 p.m.”  
“I thought we could wait a little bit. Get to know each other before we …”   
“No! Didn’t you hear what Jensen said? We want it over and done, so we do it tonight.” Misha interrupted harshly.  
“We? Will you be there too?” Jared asked Misha irritated.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
At 10 p.m. Jared knocked on the bedroom door he only wore a bathrobe. He had prepared himself as Jensen had requested him to do. Then he had put a butt plug in to keep himself open. 

Jared was no virgin; in College, he had his fair share of sexual encounters with both male and female, betas and omegas. But he never had sex with an alpha. First because usually he had used to top and so far he had never met an alpha that wanted to bottom and second knotting seemed far too intimate for a hookup.

Slowly Jared opened the door and his breath stocked. The room was lit with candles and on the big king size beds were Jensen and Misha. Their bodies were glistening with sweat, they were laying on their sides facing each other kissing, stroking and writing against each other. He wondered if he should just join them or if he should…

“He’s here.” Misha stage whispered into Jensen’s ear.   
Slowly Jensen turned towards Jared “What are you waiting for? Get on the bed, on your hands and knees.”  
Jared did as he was told. Jensen put Jared in the middle of the bed. A flashed looking Misha had moved up to the bed and was sitting with his back to the headboard, facing Jared and Jensen. 

Jared was now kneeling between Misha’s spread legs and Jensen behind him.  
“God, you look so hot,” Jensen whispered breathlessly. Jared looked over his shoulder, but Jensen wasn’t looking at him. In fact, he had only eyes for Misha and Misha was also just looking at Jensen. Jared was just the fuck toy between them. 

Without further preamble, Jensen pushed in and Misha pulled Jared head down on his cock. Jared has gasped when Jensen had pushed in and Misha had timed his intrusion so, he could shove his cock in Jared’s unexpected mouth.

It wasn’t that Jared was opposed this kind of threesome but they didn’t include him. They just used him. His body didn’t have time to adjust to Misha fucking his throat or Jensen fucking his ass. Jared was just glad he had prepared himself very thoughtfully.

Before he could get on with the program Misha came down his throat a low moan of “Jensen” on his lips. Jensen was chanting: “Mish, Mish.” And Jared could feel Jensen's knot expanding and with the last snap of his hips, he pushed it in Jared’s tight channel coming deep inside of him.   
With the scent of Jensen's release in the air, they held him tight between them and bit him both at the same time, Jensen from behind left and Misha on the right side of his neck. “Ah!” Jared called out in pain they had both broken skin and he was bleeding. He felt another spurt of come as Jensen came again. It only spurs them on and they bit harder.

They hadn’t pushed Jared out of their bed but Jensen had pulled out of him as soon as his knot had deflated enough to do so. Misha had snuggled into Jensen's arms and they had fallen asleep, spent and happy in their post-orgasmic afterglow. 

They both ignored or had forgotten the 3rd party. Jared had crawled out of the bed as soon as they fell asleep. He had seen a guest bathroom earlier and so he went there and took a very long, very hot shower. 

He felt dirty. Jensen and Misha hadn’t even bothered if Jared had got off (which he hadn’t) and wasn’t it at least polite consideration to get the partner off? Jared tried real hard not to put too much in his first night with his mates. And no there were no tears it was just the damn shampoo that got in his eyes. After he had finished drying himself he went up in the attic and crawled into the cold bed there.

 

The next morning was a bright sunny day; Jared had no idea when the time for breakfast was in this house was. So he went down at seven still in his sleep pants only to find five people staring at him from the breakfast table. 

“Jared, how nice of you to finally join us,” Jensen said.   
“I didn’t know at what time the breakfast…” Jared started.  
“Well this is no Hotel and we have to work so we have an early breakfast,” Jensen told him like he was some kind of retard.   
“Go get dressed. I don’t want to introduce my new mate to my friends in his PJ.” Jensen dismissed him.

Jared turned around and ran upstairs and no five minutes later he was dressed and again standing in the kitchen. 

“My friends, that is the omega we talked about. Jared these are Steve Carlson and his beta Chris Kane. And the goofball is Chad Michael Murray.” It followed a series of hellos and then Jensen continued:   
“I want you and Murray to look into our power network and power plant. We have blackouts two or three times a week. Find out why and what you can do about it.”  
“Yes, alpha.” The two answered.

 

Misha was contented in the weeks that followed. Jared approached him several times but he was always able to brush him off. It was more like they had roomer living in the attic than another spouse. It wasn’t ideal but he could live with it. And then it happened, Misha went into a spontaneous heat. It wasn’t really bad in fact it was a lot of fun. 

He met with Jensen early Friday afternoon on the porch behind their house and changed into their wolf form and spent the weekend running around in the forest, fucking and hunting. 

Early Monday morning they were back home and Misha felt more like him again. When they came down that morning the omega had prepared a big breakfast. Misha ignored him, He preferred to view him as a boarder.

It was the next Wednesday when Misha felt a little bit off, so he went home early. He wanted to lay down in the living room but the omega was there working in a corner. So Misha decided to lay down upstairs. An hour later after a nap, he felt much better and he had a certain suspicion. 

Misha went into the bathroom and got the pregnancy test. After he saw the results he could hardly wait to talk to Jensen.

 

 

One day earlier:  
Jensen was really busy. The spontaneous heat of Misha hadn’t helped either, not that he complained, he got hard just thinking of the last weekend, which made him all the crankier around his staff and council members. 

He was in his office when the electricity went off. Blackout!  
“Jared! “ he called “Jared! Get in my office right now.”  
Only seconds later Jared appeared in front of his office.

“Jen… Alpha?” he asked a little breathlessly.  
“I think I told you to get rid of these blackouts. What are you and Murray doing the whole day? I thought you’re an engineer! Get this problem under control. You are just one big disappointment. Get out of my office and sight.”

Jared started to speak but Jensen talked him down:  
“I don’t want to hear anything from you other than a confirmation that you got the problem solved.”

The omega left as fast as he had come and Chris appeared at the door:  
“Don’t you think you’re a little unfair to your mate?”  
“Misha? When?” Jensen asked confused.  
“No! Not Misha – Jared the omega who just left. He’s you mate too.”  
“Well, that is different.” Jensen deflected. He didn’t want to think about Jared as his mate because he knew that would hurt Misha. Jensen preferred to see the omega in the office and not at home. Even truer, he preferred to not see him at all. 

“Alpha with all due respect…” Chris started.  
“You better shut up Kane or I’ll kick you out too.”

On Wednesday when Jensen got home he saw the omega working in a corner of the living room.   
“Why are you blocking our living room with all that work stuff?”  
“I didn’t want to…”  
“Well, you have to consider that Misha and I also live here. Get your things out of my living room. And where is Misha?”  
“He came home earlier and went upstairs. I haven’t seen him since.”  
“And you didn’t look after him? How selfish!”

Without listening to Jared’s explanation, he ran upstairs to check on his mate. He knocked on the door:  
“Misha, are you awake?” Jensen pushed the door open and suddenly he had an arm full of smiling beta. Misha pulled him in and closed the door.  
“I took a pregnancy test Alpha. I’m pregnant. We are going to be parents.”

For a second Jensen just stared in wonder at his beautiful mate:  
“We’re going to be parents? Misha thank you! I don’t know how to tell you how much I love you! The council and pack will be so happy and …”  
“Can we wait till we tell everybody? I want it to be our secret for a little while.”  
“Yes sure anything you want darling.”

Jensen wanted to tell the whole world that they were going to have a baby, but he respected Misha’s wish not to tell anybody, and at least in the back of his mind he was aware that because Misha had conceived in wolf form that there was a big chance that Misha would loose the baby. 

It wasn’t talked about in public because it was seen as a weakness on the beta and especially on the alpha part, but traditionally if you conceived in wolf form you should stay in wolf form for the whole pregnancy. Exception if you had an omega it wouldn’t matter. Changing back to the human form was most of the time lethal to the little nugget were DNA. 

The best way to make sure a beta conceived was to have sex with an alpha and an omega. Somehow the sperm of an omega was more fertile and highly potent in combination with alpha sperm, but that was something no one talked about. 

The next days went by quite uneventful. The omega tried to talk to him and Misha on several occasion but the two of them were just too happy and ignored him. On Friday morning Jensen had to go to the council and kissed Misha good by before heading out. 

Misha had called in sick on Friday, but he told his worried mate to go to the council. He didn’t know what was wrong it felt like he had a little cramp and went to the bathroom. Misha felt another little cramp and then he felt his body giving in and some fluids ran down between his legs. It wasn’t much and under other circumstances, Misha wouldn’t bother. But now he knew he was no longer pregnant. He curled up on the bathroom floor and cried. 

Some time later there was a knock on the door and the omega pushed in. Yes, that was all the omega did was push in and between him and Jensen, invaded their house and their lives. If it wasn’t for the omega Misha was sure he would still be pregnant. Only the stress the omega had caused him was the reason Misha had lost the baby.  
“Get out!” he screamed at him “You’re bad luck. Everywhere you go you bring misfortune to the people around you. Get away.” Misha then crawled into the bed after calling Jensen; his mate found him still crying in the bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
Jared hadn’t expected that the mating would be sunshine and birds singing, but he hadn’t expected that his mates ignored him and most days would barely talk to him. 

Jared was a social person he needed people around him. Being given the silent treatment was torture for the young man. Thank god he had his work and Chad. After meeting the beta on his first morning the two of them had become fast friends. Chad had shown Jared around in San Mateo, had introduced him to people and had generally helped him to feel a little bit at home in this new alien town. 

Jensen’s order to look into the power plant had been an eye opener. The power plant was old but well built, the transformer still working good, usually, the plant should have been able to provide a town twice the size of San Mateo. The problem was apart from being well built it hadn’t been maintained well in the last 15? 20? 30? years. So short term solutions had become a long term which caused problems (reading blackouts) since they were never meant to stay long. 

So Jared started working through the plant, drawing diagrams, trying to find out what had been done and why and why it worked or caused problems. 

The main problem for Jared was there was no one he could ask. The last engineer that had worked here had died five years ago, and as helpful as Chad was he knew almost nothing about how a power plant should work. So he crawled all over the place telling Chad to write this down and to draw that up. 

After he messed up on that first morning, Jared had made it his goal to be up first. Every morning he would get up and make breakfast for Jensen and Misha. He would clean up after they had left and he would meet up with Chad. 

He had finished drawing up a circuit diagram and now Jared was working on a concept to renew the power plant without shutting it down. During his lunch break, Jared would run home to prepare dinner so Jensen and Misha had something ready when they got home.

“And Jared, any special plans for tonight?” Chad asked him four weeks after his mating.  
“Plans?” Jared asked he was deep in thought on when he could turn off certain parts of the energy net so he could exchange some power distribution.   
“Jared, Jared you’re newly mated. This is your first moon. You should spend time with your mates. After a month your mates are supposed to give you your wedding gift. I’m sure they have planned something special for you.”  
“Chad I’m sure they have completely forgotten about that. I think they are mad at me because they were forced to take me in by the omega act. They don’t want me around; they made it more than clear.”   
“No Jared. It’s the first moon, they just needed some time to adapt. I’m sure when you get home they have something planned.”

When Jared got home that Friday he just saw Misha and Jensen in their wolf form vanishing in the nearby forest. Did Jensen and Misha wanted that he followed them? Then he caught a sweet scent, Misha was in heat! 

His mate was in heat but they had decided that Jared wasn’t needed or welcome. So much for Chad’s “They have something planned.”

He went back inside. He had set up a table in the living room with diagrams, printouts after he bumped his head several times in the attic because of the low ceiling. Jared had trouble concentrating on his work, Misha’s scent still hung in the house. He would have liked to join Misha and Jensen. His wolf wanted to run under the moon but it was seen as bad manners to change and run around in the forest all alone, like a lone wolf. His father had always said:  
“We are weres, not animals. We don’t run alone we run with family, friends or mates but not alone. “  
Jared stretched his arms and legs, his wolf wanted to join his mates. Well, he would put all his energy in his work and he could sleep in wolf form in front of Jensen’s and Misha’s bedroom. 

At 1 a.m. he called Chad.   
“Chad meet me at the power plant. I have an idea.” He shouted excited at the sleepy beta. “Jaybird do you have an idea what time it is?”   
“Yes, that’s why.” 

Jared worked the entire night till seven in the morning rewiring and exchanging old parts. Chad had drifted off to sleep around two, but Jared didn’t mind he was happy that he didn’t lay awake in his attic or before Jensen’s and Misha’s bedroom and had to listen to his mates’ lovemaking. 

He stopped working around seven when the energy consumption increased and working without shutting down parts of the plant became too dangerous. He woke up Chad to send him home and went home himself. 

The house was silent and alien to him. Thankfully he was tired enough that he slept in his little bed in the attic. He woke up around noon and went back to the office to update his notes on what he and Chad had accomplished last night. He couldn’t stand the silence in the house. Chris and Steve found him there working.  
“Jared, what are you doing here? We thought you, Misha and Jensen…”  
“Ah yes Misha went into heat and they went together into the woods,” Jared explained.  
“And you?” 

Jared shrugged what could he say, that his mates didn’t want him? He had learned that in the last 30 days. Chris and Steve exchanged a look.  
“We have a little barbecue tonight would you like to come? Chad will also be there.”  
“I don’t know. I wanted to go back to the plant tonight and…”  
“We insist,” Steve said the thought of the young omega. Spending his first moon all alone by himself, no he couldn’t do that. 

Steve was worried about the omega but he could also relate to Jensen. If some law would force an omega in his mating with Chris, he would have a hard time to cope too. What he didn’t understand was how Jensen could ignore his young mate. Jared was a fantastic young man and right now he was working his ass off for a pack he barely knew. 

Jared was sitting on the patio of Chris and Steve’s home. He had come directly from the office and didn’t plan to stay that long so he could finish his project. Steve and Chris had introduced him to the other council members JD Morgan and Jim Beaver. But now Jared was getting restless he had an order from his alpha he wanted to follow. Sitting around didn’t get the work done. So as soon as possible Jared thanked Steve and Chris for their hospitality and said good night. He hadn’t been hungry in the first place and he was quite sure that it went unnoticed that he didn’t eat.

Of course, instead of going home he went back to work, trying to get as much done during the night as possible.

Jared spent the Sunday in the same fashion except for the barbecue part and returned back home early Monday morning. The first thing he noticed was the smell. Jensen and Misha had returned, so instead of going to bed, he made them breakfast. He barely had time to change before Misha and Jensen came down.  
“Good morning Jensen, good morning Misha, I made pancakes and eggs. What would you like?” He asked.

“I need coffee,” Jensen grumbled and Misha asked:  
“Where is the bacon? You can’t have eggs without bacon”   
Soon they had finished and left the house. Jared tried to force himself to eat something but he wasn’t hungry so he just cleaned up the kitchen and also headed to work. 

Chad had given him his old bike, basically, Jared could go with Jensen by car since they both worked in the council building but Jensen never offered or waited for Jared.

That night Jared wanted to finish the first replacements and was happy when around 4 a.m. he was done. He would have to check some things but that had to wait until tomorrow when not tomorrow but after breakfast. 

“Jared! Get in my office right now.” Jared jumped out of his chair had he slept? Oh God, what was this? A blackout? How? He had checked everything twice if he had rewired it correctly. Jared ran to Jensen’s office, his alpha looked angry at him.  
“Jen. Alpha… “ Jared started, but Jensen didn’t let him finish  
“I think I told you to get rid of those blackouts. What are you and Murray doing the whole day? I thought you’re an engineer! Get this problem under control. You are just one big disappointment. Get out of my office and sight.”

“I worked all wee…” Jared started.  
“I don’t want to hear anything from you other than a confirmation that you got the problem solved.”

Jared turned around and hurried back to his desk. No, no tears, he wasn’t a baby. Chad, who had heard it all placed a hand on his shoulder and said:  
“Jared the blackout wasn’t your fault. The alpha can’t expect that you redo the whole electricity network within four weeks after 30 years of mismanagement. “  
“He gave me one order, Chad. Just one and obviously he thinks I’m too stupid or too lazy or both to get the job done.”  
“Well then you just have to proof to your mate you are neither,” Chad said not too serious to cheer him up.  
It was just like a switch had been turned: yes, of course, he just had to proof himself worthy of his mates and everything would work out.

Chad and Jared had finally gotten the energy back on and from now on the plant should run smoothly. 

“I think I’ll go back home early.” Jared said, “Maybe I can talk to Jensen.”  
Chad didn’t know what was early meant when it was almost 9 p.m. but he just silently agreed. When Jared got home Misha and Jensen had already eaten the lasagne Jared had prepared. There wasn’t any leftover, but that was okay since Jared wasn’t really hungry. The next day Jared called Chad and told him he would work from home today. Yes, he would proof himself to Jensen and Misha. 

The problem was, he knew what he had to do for Jensen but for Misha, he had no idea. The beta barely talked to him, maybe he could ask Samantha. Samantha was the beta mate of J.D. Morgan and also a teacher at the pack school. Jared spent the morning making phone calls to his dad and to the business partners Jared knew or his father had suggested. 

By the time afternoon came around he had a list of contacts and a plan in mind to make – well hopefully his alpha proud of him. Jared had been deep in thought that he hadn’t heard Misha when he entered the living room.  
“Oh,” Misha said “You’re at home. I go upstairs, I don’t feel too good. I’ll lay down just stay away.”   
“Oh hi, Misha. Yes, sure I won't bother you. Do you need anything? Should I call Jensen? Just call if…”   
But Misha just waved him off.

It was three hour and a lot of phone calls later when Jensen came home. Jared had set up the table and there was some chicken roasting in the oven. 

Instead of a greeting him, his alpha said:  
“Why are you blocking our living room with all that work stuff?”   
Well, the truth was while it was one big room due to the roof Jared could barely stay upright in the center of the room. There was no table or chair and he had hoped it would be okay if he stayed down here.   
“I didn’t want to…” Jared started but as so often he wasn't allowed to finish the sentence.  
“Well, you have to consider that Misha and I also live here. Get your things out of my living room. And where is Misha?”  
“He came home earlier and went upstairs. I haven’t seen him since.”  
“And you didn’t look after him? How selfish!”  
Jared was devastated, he had followed the betas wish by staying away and he tried to tell so Jensen but he had already left. He could hear Jensen knocking on the bedroom door and then excited voices. Jared wasn’t stupid he knew what that meant. Misha had gone into heat and now he was pregnant. 

Jared waited patiently in the living room. He waited that Misha and Jensen would come down and share the news with him. After one hour he turned the chicken off and waited, he had iced some wine and now it was getting warm. After two hours waiting he put the bottle back in the fridge and set the table for breakfast. 

He then gathered all his stuff and carried it upstairs. He would put it under the window and maybe Chad could help him to find a little table or something. 

As he passed the closed bedroom door he could hear Misha and Jensen talking. He was tempted to knock and congratulate them but he thought it better when they told him on their terms. 

The next day he talked to Steve because he was responsible for the pack area development.  
“You know all decisions must be run through Jensen.” Steve reminded.  
“I know but I want to present him a whole concept and if he says “yes” it should be possible to start within a month. “  
“Are you trying to impress us?” Steve asked a little teasingly.  
“No, I try to proof myself worthy to my alpha,” Jared answered deadly serious. Steve nodded all teasing gone he promise to help Jared.

When Jared got home Misha had taken the chicken apart and made sandwiches for him and Jensen. It was okay, really because Jared wasn’t really hungry and he had a salad for lunch or had that been yesterday?

He sat down with Jensen and Misha to watch some comedy on TV. Jensen and Misha were smiling and holding hands and Jared tried to engage them in a conversation but their answers stayed short or yes/no and finally Jensen asked him to be quiet because he wanted to watch the show. 

On Friday Jared prepared breakfast and left a note telling his mates he had an early appointment. He had a conference call with his father and a young man named Bill. After Bill had hung up his father stayed on the line:  
“Jared I love your idea. Your mates must be really proud of you.”  
“Well dad, they don’t know about it.”  
“Jared – why not?”  
“I want to proof myself to my alpha. I know this is important to Jensen, so this is my gift for him.”  
“Oh, Jared sometimes you’re such a romantic.” His fathers laughed and hang up. 

Jared was looking up some numbers when he missed some notes he had written last night. He must have them forgotten at home. He went home and upstairs to get his notes when he passed the bathroom he heard some crying. He knocked on the door. When he didn’t hear an answer he knocked again and pushed the door open. 

Misha was on the floor only dressed in a bathrobe. Between his legs were some bloody fluids. Jared gasped, the baby! Misha had lost the baby!  
“Misha let me help you.” He reached out to pick Misha up when the beta twisted away and starred with absolute hate at him:  
“Get out! You’re bad luck. Everywhere you go you bring misfortune to the people around you. Get away.”

He didn’t want to agitate Misha any further, he left the bathroom and run to the phone calling Jensen and the doctor. Maybe there was still hope for the baby.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5   
Jensen spent the next day with his mate in the bedroom. Mourning their child or better to say the hope and possibility they had lost. Every time he opened the bedroom door he found something to eat and drink. 

Misha was physically back to normal by Saturday evening, even the doctor had said so. But he refused to leave the bedroom, on Sunday morning Jensen persuaded Misha to have breakfast with him downstairs. When they both came down after they had showered together Jared had prepared a huge breakfast. Waffles, bacon, eggs, toast, beagles, fresh cut fruits Jensen was impressed but Misha just looked at the omega with almost hate in his beautiful eyes.  
“What is the omega doing here Jensen?” he asked with a terrible voice. “It’s his fault we lost the baby.” 

Jensen looked from Misha to the omega and back to Misha. Jensen knew it was his duty as the alpha in their family to set the rules how to behave with each other. But he loved Misha too much to tell him to give Jared some credit. Sometimes Jensen wished that Jared would just disappear because in that point Misha was right before Jared everything had been easier. 

Jared just turned silently around and left the kitchen. 

If Jared had made himself rare before Jensen only saw him now at the office. But every morning the breakfast waited for them ready and every evening somehow a dinner was prepared.

 

Misha knew he was lashing out and he knew he had a favorite victim – Jared. But it hurt so much to lose the baby that it felt good if he could blame someone else. It had been very satisfying to see the hurt in Jared’s eyes that Sunday morning. It was a good feeling to have Jared ordered to stay away from them. The fact that Jared continued to prepare meals for him and Jensen made Jared weak in Misha’s eyes like he was pleading or begging for them to accept him.

The facts that the pack beta had a miscarriage lead to a lot get well cards, teddy bears and balloons. And on Tuesday the next week, Misha went back to his school. He loved teaching and he had missed his students. It was good to be working again to take a step back to normal. 

During the lunch break the following week he was sitting on a park bench in the sun when his fellow teacher walked up to him.

“Beta Misha, may I talk to you?” She asked. Misha nodded and motioned to her to sit beside him.  
“It’s good to see you back in school, the kids missed you.”  
“I missed them too,” Misha said.

They were silent for a couple of minutes before Samantha continued:  
“I know how you feel. I have lost four babies to the shift. It’s a cruel twist of faith that we don’t know that we conceived in wolf form, the form we consider stronger and more in harmony with nature.”  
Misha stared at her.  
“Sorry, I didn't know.”   
Samantha let out a humorless laugh.  
“It’s something alphas and betas don’t talk about. Our whole life we were told the wolf form is our true form and that we as alphas and betas were stronger and better than omegas. But now we find out that a baby sired with the assistance of a male omega has a much higher chance to be carried to term and losing a baby due the shift is basically unknown to female omegas.”   
“What are you saying, Samantha?”   
“I’m saying the omega act was a cover-up to conceal the fact that birth rates for alpha/beta only couples are dropping and forcing an omega into every pack alpha/beta is the desperate attempt of the government to increase the alpha/beta population.   
I’m sorry for your loss Beta but please keep in mind that your cure is at your home.”

Misha was furious, only he didn’t know at whom. Did Jensen know? How did Samantha know? Or was it all a lie? 

 

Three weeks later they were invited to a big barbecue on Saturday afternoon. Misha so far hadn’t found the time to talk to Jensen about what Samantha had told him and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. With a little surprise, Misha had read the invitation Alpha, Beta, and Omega of the San Mateo pack. 

He took a deep breath no need to get agitated about that. Obviously, Jared had made some friends in the pack. Well, Misha wouldn’t stand by and watch the omega take everything away from him. The night before the barbecue Misha and Jensen made love for the first time after they had lost the baby to the shift and Misha felt like another important part of himself had been restored. 

The barbecue was held at Samantha’s and Jeff’s place and it was a really huge affair. The whole pack council, teachers, and businessmen were there. Misha was again unpleasantly surprised how many people Jared already knew since he arrived one – no – two month ago. 

The party was in full swing but Misha still felt a little left out. He knew he had too much to drink but he didn’t care. From his seat in a deck chair by the pool, he watched Jared talking and laughing with the people. Gone was the silent omega that took care of their house and prepared silently the meals for them. He looked well maybe not happy but content and Misha hated the omega with every fiber of his body. 

He got up on wobbly legs and walked to the group:  
“My grandmother always said: Omegas should be seen not heard.”  
“Well, it was better to see your grandmother than listening to her.” Chad returned, Jared had gone silent and it looked like he wanted to hide behind the back of his friend.   
“No need to hide behind your friend. Everybody here knows Jensen and I was forced to take you in. We didn’t want you here. Maybe we should call Pellegrino and he would take you. You can barely smell Jensen’s claim on you anymore. Damn omega always means bad luck. I wished I could wake up and you be gone. Jensen and I would still be expecting our baby.” Misha’s speech was slurred and he had started loud enough to be heard just well only the last two sentence he screamed at Jared. 

Jensen had watched Misha walk up to Jared, now he just stepped next to Misha put his arm around his shoulder said:  
“Come on Misha he’s just not worth it.”   
They both turned their back on Jared and walked away. The other guests were too shocked and unable to provide Jared or Jensen and Misha any kind of help. Jared stood there waiting for his mates unable to move. In a traditional pack, a proclamation like this was as good as a divorce. 

Jared felt like a giant failure, tonight he had wanted to announce the progress he had made but now he didn’t even know if he was a member of this pack anymore. After what seemed like hours. Chad stepped next to Jared put his arm around his shoulder and lead him away.

 

Two days later Jared had gathered enough courage to talk to Misha. It was during his lunch break and Jared was at the school looking for Misha when he heard Misha’s voice telling the kids sitting around him a story:  
“Once upon a time there lived a beautiful beta princess. But she was vain and proud and declined every mating offer from many alphas.   
One day the bravest and strongest alpha prince asked for the honor to marry her and even if the princess felled in love with the handsome prince, her proud heart refused to give in. “Bring me the Wonder of Love, the Soul of Love and the Heart of Love and I will love you till the day I die.” The princess told the prince. The prince went on a dangerous and almost deadly quest to gather the desired objects and after a while, he had all three of them. He lied them down at the princess' feet and the pride of the princess melted away like snow in the sun and left nothing but love behind. They lived together as alpha and beta, mated and good and they lived happily ever after.” 

Unseen Jared turned around and left the school. Jensen was the rational part and Jared had known how he could prove himself to Jensen. Misha was the romantic emotional part and now Jared knew how he could proof himself to Misha.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
Early next morning Jared left Chad’s house where he had been staying for the last two miserable days. Jared missed his mates, he realized his wolf had imprinted on the other two. He had hoped they would come looking for him; San Mateo was small enough to find out where he was, but no one had come for him.

So desperate times called for desperate measure, he had packed a backpack with sleeping bag, water, a knife and some granola bars. He also took a second bag for the trophies he hopefully would collect. 

The wonder of love was a fairy tale true but behind it laid a list of tasks to proof – well usually that the alpha was worth the beta – but Jared if he could master the tasks Misha would see him as worthy. The only question was, did he need everything twice one for Misha and one for Jensen?

Jared left Chad’s place early Tuesday morning. It was cold and it had started to rain a cold misty kind of rain that soaked through your cloth and left everything dripping wet.

The wonder of love was the first task and probably the easiest. He needed to find the moon flower. The moon flower was a very, very, very rare flower that grew at the top of mountains on a rocky surface. 

First Jared headed toward the mountains. He had a vague idea where he could look for the seldom plant. After three hours walking through the forest and wilderness, he reached the mountains and started climbing. 

He remembered back home when his father dad took him and his brother climbing:  
“You need a safe hold whether with two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand and then you look for a new hold and pull yourself up and then again and again and again till you reached the top.”

Well, Jared’s destination wasn’t the top, he wanted more to climb this mountain and hoped he would find the flower. After two hours he was exhausted, due to the rain the rock was slippery and wet, his arms and legs hurt and he had cut his hands several times on the sharp rocks.  
“Well, that probably is what it means to proof yourself.” Jared thought dryly. He had paused and was resting his back against the stone looking out in the rain. He had probably three or four more hours’ daylight before it would be too dark to climb around and he wanted to make the most out of the daylight. 

His plan was to finish every task in one day so he wouldn’t miss his mates too much. Jared hoped they would be okay and wouldn’t worry too much about Jared. With a groan, he pulled himself up and started climbing again. Two hours later he still hadn’t found the flower and his hand was slowly going numb. He pulled himself up on the next rock when he saw off to his left a little blue white flower, well actually two. How fitting!

The little flowers looked like they had been waiting for him, now he just needed to figure out how he would get there. He found a hold for his left hand and left foot than he found also one for his right foot. Carefully he balanced his weight and pulled himself up. The plants were right in front of him. He reached out and pulled first one then the other flower out. Jared thought it would be nice if they could plant them in the garden after all they were a symbol of their love.

He had just placed the two flowers in his bag when suddenly the stone under his left food broke away. He was now only holding on by his right hand and right foot, above an abyss approximately 50 meters high. Slowly, carefully he tried to find another hold for his foot only to lose the hold of his right foot. Jared only held his weight with one hand for one or two seconds before he felt his grip slip. He started to slide down desperately he tried to find a hold again. After a slide of 12 meters down a wet cold rock, his searching hand found another hold on a rock sticking out. His whole weight only on one arm, he found another hold for his left, than for his right foot and then started to climb down, slowly and carefully. 

When he reached the bottom of the mountain right with the sunset, his legs gave out under him and he collapsed because of both exhaustion and relief that he was still alive. Jared looked down at himself, his shirt and pants were ripped at several places. As dinner, he had a power bar and laid down right there in his sleeping bag getting as much sleep as possible. 

The next day Jared woke up at sunrise freezing and cold. The rain had stopped but it was obvious his sleeping bag wasn’t made for sleeping outside in autumn. He checked on the two moonflowers and it looked like there were seldom but not very delicate. Jared figured the best way to get warm was moving. He packed his few belongings and started to walk following a little creek. 

Jared was a little bit afraid of the next task: the soul of love. It should show that love hurts and it was meant to proof you were willing to suffer for your love. A heart viper was a beautiful red white striped animal with a heart shaped redhead. It was poisonous but not deadly. The bite caused cramps, hallucinations and simple hurt like a bitch. It wasn’t really something Jared looked forward to the experience. 

The cuts and bruises had healed a little bit over night and he knew if he shifted he would heal completely but that was not how this quest worked. The heart viper wasn’t seldom and it shouldn’t be difficult to find two what frightened Jared more was what was expected of him. 

He had walked for two or three hours and the sun was up high in the clear blue sky when the creek led to a little lake. And there on a rock by the pond lay two heart vipers bathing in the warm sun. It must be a sign that the goodness of the moon looked with favorite eyes on his quest. First, he had found two moonflowers together and now two heart vipers! 

Jared took a deep breath. He knew what he was supposed to do. Now he just needed to gather some courage. 

The two snakes did a great job in ignoring him. Jared stepped closer. The snakes still ignored him. He reached out with both hands grabbing both vipers just behind their heads, took another deep breath and pressed both vipers to his thighs. The fangs went through the fabric of his jeans and when he pulled the snakes back one of the poisonous fangs stayed unnoticed in his upper leg. His first thought was well it doesn’t hurt that bad then the cramps started and he was lucky that the ground was covered in soft moss. 

His legs couldn’t support him anymore and he went down hard, Jared tried to breathe through the pain but the cramps kept coming and coming. Jared just laid on his back screamed in agony. He saw Misha and Jensen walking along the lake and called them for help but they just laughed at his pain. He saw Pellegrino reaching out to castrate him. He heard Jensen telling him over and over what a disappointment he was. And he heard Misha screaming at him that he hate him.   
Then the cramps reached his chest and he couldn’t even scream anymore. He simply had no breath to spare to scream. You would think it got better after one or two hours but when noon became afternoon became sunset, Jared wondered between two gaps if this ever got better or if he would die here. 

Well, it was the task to endure pain in the name of love – God he missed his mates. Belatedly he realized that he had taken the double amount of poison when the two snakes had bitten him. It was getting cold and the sun had disappeared behind the mountains when the cramps finally died away enough that Jared was able to get his sleeping bag out and crawl in. The last conscious thought was that he had no idea how he should finish the last task. 

The sun was up high in the sky by the time Jared had regained consciousness. He had no idea how long he had slept, but it must be almost noon. To say that everything hurt would be an understatement. Only one more task and he would have proved himself to Misha and Jensen. The heart of love was the only task that should be solved in wolf form. 

Slowly Jared sat up and the whole world started spinning, he took two deep breaths and looked around. The heart of love should be proof that his wolf was a good provider and took care of his mate. It would be enough when he hunted a hare or a rabbit but he had also read that the bigger the animal the bigger the proved love was. Jared wanted to show his mates he was a great provider and big in love. 

Jared got up, packed his bag and stripped out of his cloth no need to tear them. He looked down on himself his chest, arms and legs were still covered with bruises and cuts. The two snake bites were two ugly black spots on his upper legs. He had expected to be healed today but he wasn’t that lucky. 

Then he shifted and the world around him shifted too. The colors became brighter, the sounds around him sharper and the scents more pronounced. He took a moment to enjoy his wolf form usually he loved being a wolf but today he could still feel the poison in his blood. He had expected that the shift would get rid of any residential poison; well he had to live with it. 

There was a deer not too far away and two rabbits were hiding under a bush. But that wasn’t the kind of prey Jared had in mind. He sniffed, scented the air. There! A faint stink that said, predator. 

Jared started to move in that direction. Not really surprisingly it took him back to the mountain, of course, the mountain was its natural habitat.

The smell told Jared old and ill and cranky and his logic part warned him that it was probably even more dangerous because its days were numbered. Jared shook his head, he still could feel the effect the poison had on his body. 

He heard a growl. The meaning loud and clear: stay away, but Jared ignored it. The mountain lion stepped out of his hide. As Jared had predicted, it was an old male, his fur showed many scars of old battles and Jared had one second to wonder if he bit off more than he could swallow.

But it was too late for any second thoughts, the wild animal jumped at Jared going for a fast kill. Jared knew the mountain lion was probably faster and had claws; he only had his strength and his smarts. 

He let himself shove back and used the momentum to roll around so the cat was under him. But the lion didn’t waste any time with its claws he slashed at Jared’s chest cutting through fur and skin. Jared hauled biting at the claw and crushing it in his strong fangs. The cat bit and slashed everywhere it could reach but in the end, Jared bit into its throat ending its life fast. 

 

Jared had been high on endorphins from the fight but now they were slowly wearing off, he was still in wolf form and dragging the dead animal with back to the lake. They left a bloody trail behind and it took Jared quiet a while to figure out that a lot of this blood was actually his. 

When he reached the lake it was night and Jared decided to stay in his fur for the night. He woke up with cramps, he had changed back, something that hadn’t happen since he was a pub and was now naked and freezing cold. He somehow put his jeans back on cut the heart of love out of the dead mountain lion and put it in the bag and started to walk back to San Mateo. He didn’t know for how long he walked the sun had risen a while back. Everything was a blur and he was grateful when he finally found a road he could walk along. 

It must have been way past noon when he reached San Mateo. His head and feet hurt and his whole body felt like it was on fire. But, that didn’t matter anymore, he wanted to see his mates and show them the token of his successful quest. 

Jared didn’t realize that he drew up quite some attention, walking down the main street half naked, bloody and bleeding. He could never say why but he went to the council building. Jensen, Misha, Chad, Kane and his father came running out, they all looked worried. Why were they worried? They were staring at him. 

Jared’s legs gave out under him and he dropped to his knees:  
“Misha my Beta, Jensen my alpha” He started with a broken voice, “I went out on a quest to prove myself to you and I brought you the wonder of love.” He laid the two flowers at Jensen’s and Misha´s feet, “the soul of love” he pointed to the two bite marks on his legs, but they were barely visible because of the blood. “And the heart of love.” He took out the heart of the mountain lion and laid it at Jensen and Misha´s feet.

“Am I now worthy of your love?” he asked before everything became white.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is the promised 2nd part. 
> 
> Still no beta and I know my english is bad so if someone likes to volunteer as a beta I would be happy and so would be the readers.

Part 2   
Chapter 7  
Four days earlier:  
Jensen felt miserable and he knew Misha wasn’t doing any better. The house felt desert. God! Jensen didn’t know he would miss a child that had barely been more than an idea. He came down for breakfast only to realize there was no breakfast, just like there hadn’t been a dinner waiting for them last night. Grumbling Jensen made coffee, not too long after he was joined by Misha.   
“I never imagine that I would miss him or her that much after only knowing it for just a short time,” Misha said he looked awful. For a split second Jensen KNEW, there was something completely wrong, true they were missing someone but not their child...

The next day in the office someone called.   
“Hi, I would like to speak to Jared Padalecki-Ackles.”  
“I’m Jensen Ackles, I’m his alpha.”  
“Oh, Alpha Ackles good to finally speak to you; my name is Gates and your mate thought I should move with my little business up to San Mateo because he could guarantee there wouldn’t be a problem with blackouts.”  
“Well Mr. Gates thank you for calling but our last blackout was…”  
Jensen stopped when had been the last black out? Not this week or the week before, in fact, the last blackout he could remember was the Tuesday after Misha´s heat which was more than four weeks ago. They had never gone without a blackout that long. Jensen realized Gates was still waiting.   
“Never mind, so what can I do for you Mr. Gates?” he asked to cover up that he had no idea what Gates was talking about.   
“Well, I know Jared planned me as a late mating gift to you.” Gates laughed nervously. “He said something like he had to prove himself. Well, however when we talked three days ago he told me I should call today and talk to you.”  
Jensen spent the rest of the morning talking to Gates – Bill as he insisted on being called – about moving his little enterprise to San Mateo. As far as he understood he was writing programs for a new kind of Zuse machine called a computer. 

Well, it sounded interesting and San Mateo was in need of new business.  
“Chad come to my office and bring Jared with you.”   
He called over the intercom. Two minutes later Chad was standing before him.  
“Well, where is Jared?” Jensen asked he wanted at least to express some kind of gratitude to Jared.  
“I don’t know Alpha,” Chad answered.  
“What do you mean you don’t know? I thought he staying with you after… the bbq.”  
“Well, he was Alpha but when I woke up this morning he was gone. No note or anything. He didn’t take anything not that he had a lot to start with. I thought or well I hoped he went back to you.”  
Jensen could detect some accusation but he decided to let it slip.  
“When was the last blackout Chad?”   
A big grin spread over Chad’s face.   
“I had wondered when you would notice. 31 days and counting. Jared is a damn genius with this old stuff. He showed me how to maintain the power plant and had started…” the beta stopped.  
“What had he started?” Jensen asked.  
“Well, it's supposed to be a surprise.” Chad tried to avoid the question.   
“Chad I want to know what this omega is up to.”  
“Well, he started making plans to renew the power plant without to have it shut down. He told me that new businesses only would consider San Mateo if the power supply was guaranteed.”  
“If you see Jared tell him I want to talk to him,” Jensen said dismissing Chad. 

He reached for the phone. Where could Jared be? He called Beaver, Morgan, and Carlson but they hadn’t seen Jared.  
“Do you want a search party alpha?” Carlson asked his face carefully blank. “What? No, for all we know he took a day off and is sitting in the park.”

 

The next day there was still no Jared but Jensen refused to worry about the omega. He felt miserable maybe he was getting the flu? And then Jared’s father called.   
“I would like to talk to my son alpha.”  
“Ahm I’m sorry to say your son in missing.”  
“What do you mean missing?”  
“Well, he left Chad’s house yesterday…”  
“Who is Chad?”  
“Jared’s friend.”  
“And why did he …”  
“Alpha Padalecki I´m sorry but this is between me and omega Jared.”  
He could hear George take a deep breath.  
“You got until 5 pm. After that, I’m on the next plane.” And he hung up.   
Jensen let out a breath he didn’t know he had held. There was a knock on the door and council member Beaver entered.  
“Everything okay son?” Jensen looked at his fatherly friend. He and Morgan had been interims Alphas after Jensen parents had died till Jensen could take over the job. They had never challenged him Jensen knew he could trust him because admitting to feeling sick, was admitting weakness and hence he could be challenged.  
“No, I don’t feel too well. I think I might get the flu.”  
“Idjit.”  
“What?” Jensen asked irritated and not used to be called names by someone he considered a close friend.  
“You’re not sick, your wolf is missing his mate. And the same goes for your stupid beta.”   
“I don’t understand,” Jensen said slowly.  
“Yes you understand, you just too proud to recognize it.”  
“What?” Jensen asked loosing his thin patience.  
“That your wolf and Misha´s wolf accepted Jared as their mate a long while ago. But your stupid human part was too proud to acknowledge it.”   
Jensen could just stare at his old friend, no, this couldn’t be true. He and his wolf were in sync and he told Jim so.  
“Well suit yourself, but everybody else can see it,” Jim said.  
“His father will fly in if we don’t find him till 5 p.m.”  
“Well, then you need to talk to your proud beta.”  
“What does Misha has to do with it?”  
“Oh Jensen everything, you and Misha claimed Jared. Did you allow Jared to claim Misha or you? Have you ever run with him under the moon? These are things your wolf longs for. Go! Talk to Misha because the rest of the pack has already figured out what a great were this young man is.”

 

Go! Talk to Misha – Yes that sounds easy. It was afternoon and Jensen was really worried about how Misha felt that Alpha Padalecki was coming because Jared was still missing.   
Jensen had only a little problem to admit that Jim was probably right about his inner wolf and the mating bond with Jared, alone the fact that he recognized it, made Jensen feel better. Now he just needed to talk about it with his beta.   
He walked up to their house and he could hear Misha in the kitchen. When he entered the kitchen Jensen saw Misha was trying to prepare dinner, but the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off.

“Oh Jensen you’re early, I didn’t expect you for another two hours.”  
Misha was a terrible cook and until Jared, they had mostly ordered in or a pack member brought something homemade.  
“No it’s okay; I need to talk to you.”  
All color left Misha´s face and Jensen reached out for his hand and lead him in the living room.   
“I talked to Jim Beaver earlier and he said that your wolf and my wolf accepted Jared as mate and that what we thought was grief was our wolf longing for its second mate. The reason we feel terrible is because our human part is denying the wolf part its mate.”  
“I don’t want him here,” Misha said.  
“I know, but darling please think about it. I already feel better than I felt in weeks since I accepted what Jim had told me.”  
“No! They forced us to take an omega. I don’t …” Misha stopped and started crying, deep sobs wrecking his frame and Jensen didn’t know what to do other than to hold his beta till the tears finally stopped.  
.   
“I’m afraid.” He whispered.  
“Afraid?” Jensen asked carefully he didn’t want to spook his mate or upset him even more.   
“He is so young and handsome and he is smart he can help you in ways I never could. Me? I’m just a teacher. What do you need me for when you got him?!”  
“Misha I love you I can’t live without you and I would never want that. But I – we – have to recognize that our wolfs have chosen Jared as mate too. We can’t continue to act like we did. It’s not good for the pack and for our mating.”  
“But why? Why can’t I be enough for you? Weren’t we happy?” Misha asked with tears in his eyes again.  
“Maybe we need Jared for our next step, becoming a family.”

 

Misha nodded, he remembered what Samantha had told him. Yes maybe they needed Jared but that didn’t make it easier to accept. But for a moment Misha felt his wolf agreeing with Samantha and clearly recognizing Jared as a mate. He wanted to scream and denial it but his wolf was certain: Jared was his mate.  
“Alpha Padalecki is coming tomorrow.” Jensen carefully informed Misha.   
“Why?”  
“What do you think? His son is missing and even if I think Jared didn’t tell him anything about how our mating is working, I think he suspects that it wasn’t easy for Jared.”  
“So you basically tell me, I feel bad because my wolf chooses Jared and that I should get over it because my father-in-law is coming?” Misha sounded everything between sad, angry and frustrated.  
“Misha I love you but we both have been miserable for the last month. We thought it was because we were grieving but I think Beaver is right we are missing Jared and we must learn to accept that, so we can be together as mates and lovers.”   
“I still don’t want it,” Misha whispered clearly aware he sounded like a stubborn child.  
“I know but just like me your wolf didn’t give you a choice and we have to stop blaming Jared for something he has no control over either.”  
“I need time to think,” Misha said as he got up and walked out. Jensen heard him taking off his clothes, opening the door and then he saw the dark gray wolf running the short distance to the forest. Misha didn’t return by sunset and Jensen figured he needed more time as a wolf to get his head clear. 

Since Jensen had ordered Jared to remove his things from the living room, the room seemed empty like something was missing Jensen thought as he waited for Jared’s father to call him. How could he have been so stupid, ever since Beaver talked to him everything made more and more sense.  
The phone call from Alpha Padalecki had been, to say at least, the unpleasant and off course had he promised to fly in to help to search for Jared. Jensen couldn’t really blame him, he would do the same for his child no matter alpha, beta or omega. 

 

The next day Jensen went to the pack council to organize a search party he hated to admit it but if it had been Misha he would have done it two days ago, but he had to live with the decision now and could only hope he could prove to be a better mate in the future.

Misha joined him at the council three hours later, whatever he had figured out he obviously wanted to help now and the grim determination to find Jared enough proved to him that he had accepted his wolf's choice. 

Shortly after noon, George Padalecki arrived. Gone was the warm greeting, instead, he asked if he could talk to Jensen and Misha in private.   
“I know a lot of alphas don’t give a shit about their omega kids, I’m not one of them. I must say I’m disappointed in you. I thought you would be more able to look into the future.” He took a deep breath and continued,  
“I heard the pack talking, they like Jared so he wasn’t acting like a jerk here. I´ll give Jared a choice when we find him, if he wants to continue the mating with you or if he wants to go home with me.”  
That was too much for Jensen’s wolf:  
“He is our mate!”  
“Where is his mating bite?” George countered; he pointed a finger at Jensen  
“You claimed him and then you wanted to forget about him. And you,” he turned to Misha, “You blamed him because you lost your baby to the shift.   
I say we let Jared decide and for that, we need to find him.”

The search party returned after sunset without finding Jared. 

On Friday the search party headed out as soon as the sun was up. Jensen and Misha stayed like yesterday in San Mateo to organize the search and to coordinate the different areas they had to cover, even if the both had preferred to be out there searching for Jared.

It was after the lunch break when there were shouts out in the streets:  
“Call the Alpha! Get the Alpha here!” was all Jensen could make out. He looked at Misha. Had they found Jared?

Together with Chris, Chad and Alpha George they left the council building. Jensen couldn’t believe what he saw: Jared walked towards them he was only wearing jeans that hang dangerously low on his small hips. When had Jared lost so much weight? Jensen remembered quite clearly the body under him during their first (and only) mating. He had been lean but Jared now looked malnourished. But that wasn’t even the worst, across his chest were four deep cuts like from a claw, there were more cuts and bruises all over his torso and Jensen wondered for a moment why his were physiology didn’t heal him. Some of the cuts were still bleeding and he was unsteady on his feet. 

When Jared reached them his legs gave out under him and he dropped to his knees. Jensen winced in sympathy for his knees, but Jared didn’t even flinch. With a dry and cracking voice Jared started:  
“Misha my Beta, Jensen my alpha. I went out on a quest to prove myself to you and I brought you the wonder of love.” He laid the two flowers at Jensen’s and Misha´s feet, “the soul of love. And the heart of love.” He took out the heart of the mountain lion and laid it at Jensen and Misha´s feet. “Am I now worthy of your love?” Jared asked but before Jensen or Misha could respond Jared's eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness. With a fast leap, Jensen was by his side catching Jared before his head hit the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took me so long to finsh this story.  
> But I was sick last week and as many of you pointed out  
> I shouldn´t make it too easy for Jensen and Misha so I had to  
> rewrite and add two chapters. I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Please leave a comment no matter when you read this story.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
“Get a stretcher! We need to carry him to the clinic.” Jensen ordered. Jensen was cradling Jared’s head, Misha was kneeling beside him.  
“He went through the quest? For me?” Misha asked astonishment in his question. Jensen could only look at Jared, he looked young, and well he was young.

Jensen could feel his pack and turned around looking at them. They were whispering and pointing at them.  
“Misha,” he said, “do us a favor and get the trophies.”  
Misha looked disgusted at the bloody heart, “Jensen I …” he started to object.  
“Do it now. He did it for you – for us – we must show that we honor his success.”  
Misha nodded got up and collected the three items of the quest.

 

Misha, George, and Jensen were sitting in the waiting area of the clinic. They were waiting for the doctor to come back and tell them how Jared was. After they had brought Jared to the clinic and a nurse had told them to wait here, that was two, no three hours ago and Jensen just couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to know how Jared was, how his mate was. 

The door opened and the doctor entered the waiting room.  
“Alpha Ackles, Beta, Alpha Padalecki.” He greeted them.   
“How is my son?”  
“We don´t know.”   
“What?” Jensen asked perplex.  
“Well, he is the first omega I ever had to treat and…”  
“What?” Alpha Padalecki asked furiously “You have a Pack Omega for what two months? As a responsible Doctor, you should have prepared for…”  
“George that’s enough.” Jensen interrupted; he turned to the doctor again “Tell us about Jared’s condition.”

The doctor looked from Jensen to George back to Jensen before he started.   
“Well he’s dehydrated, so we give him fluids. He is also seriously malnourished so we give him vitamins and minerals as well. As I understand he went on the love quest?” Misha and Jensen nodded.   
“Well, then it’s safe to assume a lot of the cuts are due to climbing to find the moon flower. The heart of love, well I don’t know what he fought but is was a large predator, a bobcat or even a mountain lion. Is my guess.”  
“So far I don’t understand where the problem is,” Jensen said.  
“He’s not healing. The shift from wolf back to human should have healed him but he’s not only not healing he’s getting worse. Like he’s fading away and I don’t know if it’s due to his omega status that he isn’t strong enough to survive the love quest or something else.”

“That’s bullshit. It doesn’t matter if he is alpha, beta or omega. You wouldn’t treat an alpha any different than a beta right? Do my son the same favor.” Alpha Padalecki´s tone had first been angry but the last sentence was a plea for his son’s life.

“Can we see him?” Jensen asked. “Yes sure but Alpha if we don’t find out why he´s … fading away than I don’t hold a lot of hope that omega Jared will recover. If we don’t find a cure for him he has only a few hours or at the most a few days left.”

“I’m gonna call his mother,” George said going outside to find a phone.   
Jensen nodded his understanding but he wanted to see Jared, he couldn’t believe his young mate could be dying. 

To Jensen’s and Misha´s surprise Jared was conscious, he still wore his jeans and a hospital gown, and he even tried to get up and out of bed.  
“No! Stay! Please.” Jensen added when he saw how Jared shrank back. Jensen thought about the young man he had met two months ago who had resembled more an overgrown puppy than anything else. If he was a puppy now he was a kicked one. 

“I’m sorry Alpha, I didn’t think you would miss me and well I wanted to surprise you.” Jared took a breath and Jensen and Misha could hear how labored that was.   
“Sorry, I have to do this,” Misha said before changing into his wolf form and jumping on the bed laying next to Jared. 

Jensen wasn’t really surprised that Misha had changed. His wolf had accepted Jared and so his human part didn’t have to deal; Misha had never been good with conflicts. But this way he could show his sorrow to Jared and could leave the unpleasant part to Jensen.

“No Jared you don’t have anything to be sorry about. Misha and I have to apologize to you. But now the most important thing is that you get well again okay?”  
But Jared didn’t hear him anymore he had drifted off to unconsciousness.

 

That evening Jensen and Misha went into the attic and curled up in Jared´s too small bed.  
“How could he sleep in here? The bed is much too small and I really doubt that he can stand up in this room.” Misha asked.  
“Well, we didn’t offer an alternative, right?”   
“Right.”  
They were both silent Jensen buried his nose in Jared’s cushion trying to get as much scent from Jared as possible. But Jared hadn’t slept in here for almost a week and his scent was only a fading thing.

“I can’t sleep here.” Misha said, “I need, I have to do something.”   
Also getting up Jensen followed Misha downstairs. In the kitchen on the counter were still the tokens of Jared’s quest. With trembling hands, Misha took the heart and the flowers out.  
“Do you know how they say an omega couldn’t love so deep as an alpha or beta?” Misha started, looking at the trophies. “That because they weren’t strong enough, they couldn’t do the wonders of love? The heart of love and the wonder of love…” Misha gave the flowers some water and put the heart in Tupper ware. Why had the fairy tale never mention what the princess did with the trophies? 

“I thought it was three,” Jensen mumbled.  
“What?”   
“I always thought there were three tasks,” Jensen replied  
“Because it is.”  
“But there are only two: the heart and the wonder of love. What is missing?”  
“The soul of love,” Misha answered.  
“Didn’t Jared say something about the soul of love when he came back? What is the soul of love anyhow?”  
“The soul of love is the proof you’re willing to suffer for your love.”  
“Yes, but what IS it? The wonder is a seldom flower, the heart is the actual heart of a predator. What did Jared do for the soul?” Jensen’s questions had become urgent he felt here was the answer to why their mate was dying.  
“There are different possibilities.” Misha started.  
“What’s the most common one or which goes more with the other tasks?” Jensen pressed on.  
Misha lost suddenly all his color.  
“No! That’s too dangerous!” he whispered.  
“What Misha!”  
“The heart viper, they are poisonous but become deadly if you’re too long exposed to their poison.”  
“How would Jared…”  
“… do it?” Misha finished for Jensen who nodded “He would find a heart viper and made it bite him.”  
“We have to talk to the doctor. Maybe something went wrong and there is too much poison in his blood and he just needs an antidote.” 

Within minutes they were on their way back to the hospital. Jared’s father was with Jared and he looked surprised to see them back so early. Jensen and Misha checked the sleeping young man as best as they could.  
“We need to undress him,” Jensen said.  
“Yes and we have to clean him up,” Misha added.  
“What are you two talking about?” George asked stepping in between Jensen/Misha and his son.  
“George we have a theory and in order to verify it we need to look Jared over,” Misha explained.   
“Shower would be the easiest way to clean him up,” Jensen added.  
“Jared, Jared wake up. We need to clean you up.”  
Blue-hazel-golden eyes opened.  
“Alpha, Beta!” There wasn’t much comprehension behind the wonderful eyes.  
“I take his left, you take his right side,” Jensen ordered.  
George stepped back he understood what they were trying to do.  
Somehow they managed to get Jared into the bathroom and took off the hospital gown. The jeans were much more complicated, it stuck to Jared’s legs and the dried blood didn’t make it any easier. In the end, they just cut them away.  
“Do you think they left him in jeans because he’s your omega and the hospital staff wasn’t sure if they were allowed to see him naked?” Misha asked.  
Jensen shrugged this wasn’t his concern right now.   
Right now he held his giant mate up so they could clean him. Misha turned on the water and Jensen stepped with a barely conscious Jared in his arms under the warm water. 

Misha and Jensen didn’t bother with their clothes and that they were getting wet. Carefully they started to clean Jared. They started with his head and chest and methodically worked their way down Jared’s body. 

The first indication that they were on the right track was when Misha cleaned Jared’s upper legs, he noticed his right leg was hotter than his left. And after cleaning away the grind and the dirt and the blood Misha discovered a nasty wound.   
It was high on his right leg, a spot hot to touch and the red and black of the poison was spreading through the veins. 

As soon as they had finished the shower they wrapped Jared in white fluffy towels and walked/carried him back to his bed.  
“I get a doctor,” Misha said and ran out of Jared’s room not bothering that he was dripping wet. 

After that, it was a blur and a race to save Jared’s life. They wheeled Jared out of his room and left two dripping wet Jensen and Misha behind.   
“He could have died.” Misha said, “and it would have been my fault.”  
“It was my fault too. As your Alpha, I should have … done something.”  
“Yes, you could but more important for the future is will you change?” Alpha George asked.

Two hours later the doctor informed them that they had successfully removed a poison fang from Jared’s leg. Now they had to wait till Jared wake up.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

They say when you are dying your whole life plays before your eyes. 

Well, Jared didn’t know if he was dying but he got a different POV of his life for the last three month. Everything since the omega act had been down hill. Maybe it would have been better if he would have gone to Europe, but his mother had cried and then Alpha Pellegrino showed up and then he had been mated to Jensen and Misha. His wolf had fallen for the two of them right away carrying Jared’s human part with him.

But as he realized now his mating had been awful to say at least and abusive to say the worst and Jared vowed to himself that he wouldn’t allow such treatment anymore. He deserved better than that. If they didn’t want him Jared didn’t need them. 

Jared felt the soft cotton of the blanket on his naked chest and the soft mattress beneath him. He wanted to stay in the land between dream and wake but he heard voices and knew he was waking up. 

The first thing Jared saw when he opened his eyes were his parents.   
“George, George he’s awake.” His mother called. 

Jared was happy to see his parents again he had missed them.  
“Well, your mates will be happy to hear that you’re awake.” His father said.  
“Can I … can we just have a moment together before we call everybody else in?” Jared asked. His father seemed surprised but respected his wish but his mother asked:  
“Don’t you want to see your mates?”  
“I’m just happy to see you, I really missed you.” 

One hour later Laurie announced that they had enough family time and that they should give Jensen and Misha a call.  
“Your mom doesn’t know about the problems with your mates,” George explained.  
“Yes, I figured that out. How long was I out?”  
“Three days. It had looked pretty bad and if Jensen and Misha hadn’t found out what was wrong with you … well, your mother arrived yesterday evening and she was finally able to pursue Jensen and Misha to go home and sleep. I know about the difficulties with your mates but I think now…”  
“My wolf chooses and my human part tried to prove to Jensen and Misha we could be good together but they didn’t care. I see that now. I don’t know if I should stay or go home with you.”  
“You give up on your mates?” Georg asked shocked.  
“More I finally realized that they don’t want me.”

“But we want you!” Misha and Jensen were at the door obviously they had heard Jared’s last statement and they were shocked by the prospect to losing their omega.

 

It was a couple of days later, Jared had insisted on a release from the hospital. He had the suspicion Alpha Jensen played for time to pursue Jared to come back to them. But he had moved back in with Chad. His parents wanted to leave tomorrow and Jared was still debating with himself if he should go with them or not. 

He was sitting in the small living room in Chad’s apartment when there was a knock on the door.  
“Can we talk to you?” Jensen asked him when he opened the door. Jared nodded and let the two in. Seeing who had entered Chad hurried to leave his apartment so Jared and his mates could talk.

“Jared we came to apologize, we know, I know that we haven’t been very welcoming and …” Misha started only to be interrupted by Jared:  
“I don’t care. I don’t want to anymore. Even if my wolf-bonded with you, you ignored me as both wolf and human. The first night with you should have opened my eyes, but I held hope. It took me a long time to realize you don’t want me. That you didn’t care and that after you lost the baby you hated me.  
I’ll stay here in San Mateo because my wolf would just be miserable moving again so soon. But I’ll get my own apartment.”  
“Jared please think about it. How are you gone pay for your apartment?” Jensen pleaded. He hadn’t expected that the omega would be making plans of his own. He had expected that the omega would be happy if they took him in. “  
“I’m working so I’ll get paid.”  
“You expect the pack to pay you?” Misha asked surprised.   
“They pay you too right?”   
“Yes, but I’m a beta.”   
“Yes and I’m the only engineer. And if the pack doesn’t want to pay me, Gates will. He is moving his business up here within a month and he wants me to work for him.”  
“What do you expect us to do?” Jensen asked.  
“Expect of you?” Jared asked back “Nothing.”

 

The next two month were terrible for Jensen and Misha they missed Jared but still were too proud to ask him to come back. They wanted their omega back in their life but under their conditions. Jared was the omega and if he wanted a place in their life it had to be under their conditions. The problem was Jared didn’t seem to need them.

 

The meeting with Gates was just finished and Gates and Jared had just left the meeting room, leaving Jensen and Jim Beaver behind. Jared had started working for Gates shortly after their last argument, so Jensen saw him only during meetings.

“When will you talk to him?” Jim asked after the door had closed.  
Jensen didn’t even pretend to not know what Jim was talking about.  
“He doesn’t need us.”  
“Well, he stayed here instead of going back to Texas.”  
“He doesn’t want us.”   
“I have one question for you Jensen: did you date Misha?”  
“Yes, you can say I courted him.”  
“And did you marry him after you got to know each other?”  
“Of course.”  
Jim sent a meaningful look Jensen’s way:  
“It’s true an omega doesn’t need us like a beta, it’s more of a choice for them. But an omega can be courted. He doesn’t need you but he may want you.”

That evening Jensen talked to Misha about courting Jared.   
“It should be a new start for all of us.”

The next day found a very nervous Misha talking to Jared to ask him if he wanted to tell the school kid something about electricity. Then Jensen set up a meeting to discuss the construction of the new business buildings. Then they talked Kane into having a barbecue and invite Jared too. Then Misha asked Jared out for lunch to talk about Texas because of a school project. 

The following week Jensen spoke to Jared several times on the phone because he got a call from a close friend of Bill who wanted to move his company also to San Mateo.   
Jensen was surprised by the many prospects that suddenly appeared, drawn to San Mateo just because the power supply was secure now. And all that happened thanks to Jared, his work, and his family connections. 

Some weeks later Jensen realized with surprise that many conversations between him and Misha started with:  
“Today Jared said this.” Or “Jared plans to…” 

 

Over the last four months, Jared had found a good, no a great job, had his own apartment and now this: Jensen and Misha. They had accepted his need for room but then they had somehow wormed their way back into his life. Well actually back was the wrong term. They hadn’t been together before but now it felt different, they were different. He didn’t even know when it had started but somehow he ended up talking with Jensen for hours on the phone or preparing something for Misha to use in his classes. 

If he was honest with himself that was what he had hoped his mating would be like. He didn’t hate Jensen or Misha – far from it – the reason why he had ended their relationship was because he was constantly hurt and couldn’t allow that any longer.

“Jared tomorrow is a full moon and Misha and I would be honored if you would run with us.” Jensen and Jared were sitting in Jensen’s office after they had a working lunch together.  
“What?” Jared asked surprised.  
“Misha and I would like you to join us on our run tomorrow night. At 8 pm.?”

Jared was surprised, they had never before asked him if he wanted to run with them under the moon and his wolf longed for a run (and his mates).  
“Yes, I would like to.”

So the next evening found Jared in front of Jensen and Misha´s home.   
“Jared, glad you could make it.” Misha greeted him warmly.  
“Thank you for inviting me.”   
“Come Jensen is on the back patio.” Jensen was waiting for them and after greeting Jared he said:  
“If you like you can go and change in the study.” 

Even if he longed to see Jared naked again he wanted to give him a choice, if Jared didn’t want to.  
“No, it’s fine,” Jared said stripping out of his black t-shirt and jeans. In a fluid motion, he changed into his wolf; Jensen and Misha were speechless. Jared brown reddish wolf was breathtaking. Big, strong, you could easily mistake him for an alpha. As fast as they could they also stripped out of their clothes and changed into their wolf form.

Together the trio headed into the woods: Jensen and Jared running after Misha; Misha, Jared, and Jensen playing hide and seek; or play fighting. Two or three hours after midnight they headed back home.  
“Would you like to stay? We could have breakfast together.” Misha asked Jared while they were getting dressed again.   
Jared stopped pulling his shirt on. He looked from Misha to Jensen and back then he shook regretting his head.  
“No Misha, but thank you. I can easily admit that tonight was the best time I had here and I would love to do it again. But I don’t want to stay with you. My wolf was happy he could run with his mates tonight but my human part…”  
“Doesn’t trust us anymore.” Jensen finished for him.  
Jared nodded wished them both a good night and left. 

“I thought we were making progress,” Misha told Jensen during breakfast the next morning. “But now he differs between his wolf and his human side.”   
“We need to be patient Misha. We can’t expect him to forgive us just because we run under the moon and started to let him in our lives.”  
“What can we do?”   
“We have to give him time so he can learn to trust us.”

It became their thing: the three of them would meet once, twice, three times a week to run and play in the forest.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10  
There was a knock on his office door.   
“Alpha we have a problem.” Chris Kane started as soon as he entered Jensen’s office it was early in the morning and Jensen had expected to be the only person around.   
“What is it?”  
“Old Milly was out in the woods collecting God knows what kind of stuff and she found the skinned body of a wolf.”  
“What?! Who?”  
“I don’t know, by the scent probably one of the new wolves that moved up here with Gates.”  
“We have to search the forest maybe the murderer left a trace. And we set up patrols till we find out who did this.”

 

“Jared have you heard, they found a skinned wolf in the forest and they believe it's Roy Snyder.”  
“What? No! That’s terrible.”   
“Yes like the return of the middle ages. I mean who does that.”  
“Well, Frank if you really like to know, back home in Texas our neighboring pack still followed the ancient laws. To be skinned was the common punishment for traitors.” Jared told his colleague.  
“What pack was that?” the other were asked shocked.  
“Pellegrino’s,” Jared answered; he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.

During the next weeks there were more incidents, thank God no more killings but several wolves were caught in traps and seriously injured. Jensen had no other choice than to forbid to run in the forest and so he and Misha and Jared couldn’t go either. 

Then the attacks stopped and live continued. They hadn’t any leads or ideas on who to link to attacks. So after waiting a couple more weeks Misha and Jensen were able to take Jared out in woods again. 

 

Like a soft white blanket, snow covered the mountains and the forest. Jensen looked with a fond smile at his two mates. They had already changed and were playing in their wolf form in the open space between their house and the forest. Jared and Misha looked great together. Misha´s almost black wolf and Jared’s large red-brown wolf. 

In their relationship hadn’t been much progress. Jared came over two, three sometimes four times a week and they would run together as wolves but he never stayed. And no matter how much he accepted their attention and licks and “dog kisses” as a wolf, he never allowed them more than a hug in human form. Jensen sighed deep and changed to join his mates in their game.

They were running their usual round: Jensen at the front, Misha in the middle and Jared took the back. When they came into a clearing Jensen let out a surprised bark and was gone.

Misha was to close to stop and also felt into the trap. It was a hole more than ten feet deep and five feet wide, at the bottom were wooden stakes. Jensen was howling in pain several spikes had pierced his body and as he struggled to free himself he just managed to impale himself more and more. 

Misha was desperately trying not to drop on Jensen. He had changed so he could hold onto some roots and was now trying to crawl naked out of the trap. 

Jared runs to his mates, he wanted to help them, when suddenly a big gray alpha wolf stepped out of the forest.   
“Hello, Jared. Long time no see.” Jared heard the other wolf.  
“Pellegrino!” Jared called out surprised when he recognized the other wolf.  
“I challenge you Ackles for your mates and your pack.”   
Jensen let out a whine he had tried to change but the stakes were covered in wolfsbane to prevent the shift.  
“No,” Jared said stepping between the trap and Pellegrino.  
“Oh, the little omega wants to defend his mate. How cute.”   
“It was you! All of this was you're doing!” Jared accused the alpha not leaving Pellegrino out of his eyes. “The traps, Ron Snyder skinned! That was all you!”  
“Ron was a traitor! He left my pack to come here!” Pellegrino growled back at Jared his wolf's eyes gleamed madly. In a more composed manner Jared heard him continue:  
“Yes, I set up the traps. The time in the forest with only the three of you was the only time I could try to get a hold of you. No pup, step away and the grown ups handle this.”  
“No,” Jared said, out of the corner of his eyes he saw a naked Misha hanging on the edge still trying to climb out of the trap. But it was difficult and dangerous because of the ice and snow covering all, not to mention cold.  
“You know you don’t stand a chance against me omega.” The wolf told Jared stepping closer.   
“If you want to get to get to…” Jared started to reply, there was a howl from the left side and an answering howl from the other side. The San Mateo pack was coming! Jensen’s howl must have been heard by the patrol. 

Jared saw a movement behind Pellegrino. Hiding in the dark of the forest were at least seven more wolves waiting. Yes, he didn’t have a chance to win this fight, not when Pellegrino planned to fight dirty, but now backup was on the way.

But Pellegrino didn’t like the change of the odds:  
“This isn’t over,” Pellegrino called over his shoulder before turning around and running in the direction of the pack border.

Jared turned around changed into a human and helped Misha out of the trap. Getting Jensen out would be more difficult.  
“Misha I let you down to Jensen, talk to him. Look that he settles down.”  
He held Misha on both arms and lowered him carefully down. Jensen had stopped struggling but two or three spikes were still impaled in his body.Jared heard the howling again closer this time and he didn’t waste any time he changed back and howled his answer. 

Kane and Carlson were the first to arrive at the clearing, but Jared didn’t let them closer only after they had assured Jared that no one had the intention of challenging Jensen, Jared allowed them to step closer.

Beaver and Morgan were the next to arrive and after they had assured Jared that they would stay loyal to Jensen, Jared also climbed down the trap to help Misha to free Jensen. Together with Misha, they were finally able to lift Jensen up enough to free him. 

Beaver had built some kind of slide where they could put Jensen’s large wolf form.  
“Would you guard him?” Misha pleaded “He – we trust you and we heard you guarding him before.”  
Jared was surprised no more stunned. To guard a wounded alpha was the beta right and duty. For Misha to give up this privilege was huge! But Jared was too worried about Jensen to think this really through. So Misha took the lead followed by Morgan, Beaver pulled the slide with Jensen on it. Jared was next to him watching Jensen and the surroundings. Kane and Carlson took the back. 

Jared was sure the seven of them made an impressive picture. All wolves build and large and he hoped that would be enough to keep Pellegrino away.

As fast as they could the group made its way back to San Mateo. Misha always checking the snowed path to make sure there wouldn’t be more unpleasant surprises. 

Pellegrino! But Jared knew now was not the time or the place to think about the implications. It took them more than an hour to get back to San Mateo. The doctor was more than careful when he approached Jared and the barely conscious Jensen. Not only the doctor was surprised by the deep growl that left him when he wanted to wheel Jensen away. So Jared was allowed to stay with Jensen while the nurses and doctors cleaned out and sewed the wounds. He still stayed beside Jensen after they gave him an antidote and Jensen changed painfully slow back into his human form. 

Jared followed the bed when the bed when they wheeled it into a room and only made room for Misha who entered after a couple of minutes. Misha was dressed in scrubs and held out a pair for him.   
“If you like Jared you can change into this.”  
But Jared just shook his head, he could better guard Jensen his alpha and his mate if he stayed in his wolf form. 

Misha understood too.   
“I put them in the bathroom if you change your mind.” He said and took a seat at Jensen’s side holding Jensen’s hand and talking in a low voice while Jared held guard over his mates.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Jared was confused and he hated to be confused. He had found some kind of and had been content to spend time with Jensen and Misha only in their wolf form. But now after watching over them, spending time with them together in their human form (even if he had stayed wolf), seeing them interact, listening to them talking about every subject that came to their mind made Jared want that too (again). A couple of times he had been close to change in human form and join their conversation. But he remembered vividly the way they had treated him and even if Jared was willing to forgive them, he wasn’t willing to live like that again. 

Had they changed? Did they want him? 

“Jared we would like to talk to you.”  
Jared’s wolf sat up looking from Jensen to Misha and back.  
“As human please.” Misha pleaded but Jared shook his head, they accepted him as a wolf and he wasn’t willing to be ignored again.”

Before the situation could go in the wrong direction Jensen intercepted:  
“We have a problem. Pellegrino is still after us, I have a plan but I need your help. Please, Jared, I need to talk to you.” Jensen pleaded and that was finally enough for Jared. He went into the bathroom changed forms, took a really fast shower and put the scrubs on, that Misha had placed there some days ago. 

“Okay, I’m listening,” Jared said stepping out, his voice was rough from unused he needed a shave and probably some sleep but to Misha and Jensen, he looked gorgeous. 

“We know that Pellegrino is still around and waiting for a sign of weakness so he can challenge me and I think we should give him his chance.”   
“What do you mean?” Jared asked not a good feeling in his stomach.   
“We could pretend that Jensen is dying and wants to go home. I’m sure he would challenge Jensen on his way home. They will fight, Jensen wins and everything goes back to normal.” Misha explained.  
“What? No, Pellegrino doesn’t fight fair. Don’t you remember the forest? His goons were willing to help him during the fight.”   
“That is why we need it to happen in town in front of witnesses. And why we need you to promise not to enter the fight. It must be an all alpha fight so no one could say it wasn’t fair.” Jensen explained.  
“Are you even fit enough to fight and he fights for kills are you willing to do that? Is killing Pellegrino taking over his pack what you want? His pack is the second largest in Texas just behind my fathers.”  
“I know Jared and no I never had any intentions to fight Pellegrino for his pack but he is giving me no choice. And for the fit part, I thought I would train with you.”   
“What? Why me? Why not Kane or Misha as your mate?”  
“You’re my mate too and if I understand the customs right in Texas you were schooled in pack fights right.”  
“Yes right.” Jared agreed hesitantly.  
“So can we start training?”   
“Okay.” Jared said, “When and where?”  
Here and now. We can make room wheel the beds out and can start.” Jared looked at Misha and back at Jensen a kind of speechless, he nodded his agreement. 

The room had been cleared and Jensen and Jared were facing each other. They wore a traditional loin cloth that wouldn’t hinder them if they decided to shift during the fight. 

It might be a little bit cold in the snow outside, Misha thought trying to hide a smirk, but the view was worth it.

Jensen looked Jared up and down and saw Jared doing the same. Jensen's cock twitched with interest. Jared had gained some weight and put on some muscles He looked like sex on legs. 

“Traditionally you start in human form.” Jared started to explain, “You greet your opponent and then you circle each other till one is ready to attack. But …”   
“But..” Jensen inquired.  
“But Pellegrino changes into wolf form as soon as the start signal is given. He attacks as a wolf going for the throat for a fast kill.”

Jensen and Jared started circling each other. Misha couldn’t take his eyes of his mates, almost naked and ready to fight they looked both hot and deadly. And the best was he didn’t even need to decide who was hotter they were both his mates! He almost forgot that Jared wasn’t an alpha and who ever said omegas were weak hadn’t seen Jared about to fight.

“Misha this is not helping.” Jensen hissed in his direction and Jared hid his smile his fascination with his mates was obviously obvious. 

Jared attacked first, coping Pellegrino’s tactics; he grabbed Jensen around the middle and lifted him up to throw him on his back. But Jensen hooked his feet behind Jared’s back and took him with him down. They were rolling around and throwing punches, deflecting and fighting back. 

Suddenly Jared found himself on his back, Jensen had pinned his arms above his head.   
“Do you yield?” he asked Jared with a smirk in his voice, the feeling of Jared squirming under him was fantastic.   
“No,” Jared replied equally smirking he hooked his legs around Jensen's torso pulling him down and using the momentum to put now Jensen on his back. For a moment Jensen was shocked and almost looked afraid, but Jared still smirked down at him:  
“That is a trick my father showed me. It’s handy and even works in wolf form.”

The next hour Jared taught Jensen step by step how to throw his attacker off. Soon both of them were sweating and panting. Later neither of the three could tell when the mood changed, one moment Jared was lying under Jensen talking him through the motions and Misha watching them, the next moment Jensen pulled him up kissing Jared and Misha was at Jared’s back leaving a trail of kisses between his shoulder blades. 

Jared reached for Jensen giving back as good as he got, while Misha kissed and caressed every part of Jensen’s and Jared’s body he could reach. Jared felt drunk from the pheromones swirling around them; he never wanted this to end. But then he remembered why they were here:  
“Stop.” He panted, “Jensen, Misha please stop. Now is not the time or the place.”

Like someone had poured cold water over them Jensen and Misha stopped. The three of them stood up and looked a little bit embarrassed at each other. For two or three long moments nobody said a word then Jensen said:  
“I think I know the moves and I think we should let the word out, that I want to go home.”

 

“We saw them just behind the border. They are waiting.” Chris Kane reported to Jensen.   
“Does he know?” Misha asked.  
“I think so. He said a beta bitch like me can’t be a good guard and told me as soon as he is the Alpha of this pack my place is at home.” Chris answered.  
“Thank you, Chris,” Jensen said.  
“Jensen, just so we are clear if you lose and he kills you, I will kill you.”  
“Good to know,” Jensen said dryly.

They had just left the hospital and were on their way to the car when twenty or more wolves came running towards them. Without slowing down Pellegrino changed forms and called so everybody could hear him:  
“Ackles I challenge you. You’re sick and weak, your pack is barely holding it together and your mates are in desperate need of a real Alpha.”  
“You challenge me? This is my pack.”  
“Not for much longer. Before your body is cold I have your beta in my bed and your omega cut and naked in the cellar.”  
“I take your challenge, right now and right here,” Jensen answered, no longer hunching over, he draws himself up and gave his voice more power. 

Misha saw the moment Pellegrino recognized that Jensen wasn’t ill or dying, quite the opposite he looked healthy and fit. But it was too late he had challenged Jensen so he had the right to choose the time and place. 

The ring was fast set up right next to the hospital was a little soccer field that was perfect. The snow was gone here and only hard frozen earth covered the ground. The two packs gathered on the sidelines while the two alphas took off their clothing. There was a collective gasp among the San Mateo pack when they saw the barely healed wounds their Alpha had obtained. 

Since Jensen had expected the challenge and Pellegrino had planned it the too; the two of them were both in the traditional loin cloth. Misha leaned into Jared who was next to him:  
“You and Jensen had looked better together.”

Jared's lips formed a little smile he didn’t want to think about his destiny if Jensen lost. He really liked his clothes and he was really attached to his balls.

Pellegrino’s torso showed the proof of many successful fights and Jensen knew he would need all his knowledge and skills to win this fight. Pellegrino entered first the ring and like Jared had predicted, as soon as Jensen entered the ring he leaped at Jensen changing form during the jump. 

But Jensen knew what would happen, so he dropped to his knees and rolled away. Coming to his feet again he jumped the surprised wolf on the back, an arm going around its throat. Jensen wished he would be strong enough to just snap the beast neck but he wasn’t. It took an eternity for the angry movements of Pellegrino to become frantic, then desperate before they died altogether and even than Jensen held on. He couldn’t risk a trick. 

As the seconds became minutes Pellegrino’s pack got nervous and the San Mateo pack erupted in loud cheers and applause. The wolves of the former Pellegrino pack turned tails and run.

Slowly Jensen released the body and roused on unsteady legs. He only had eyes for his mates. He stumbled towards them and they caught him when his knees gave out.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12   
Some days later Jensen and Misha were relaxing at home, they missed Jared but even after the fight, he had only stayed for an hour or so before leaving again.   
Looking around Jensen said:  
“Misha I think we need to talk. I have an idea and I want your okay before I – we proceed.” 

Jensen had called and asked for a talk, so Jared had invited the two over for dinner on Friday. He made Lasagne because he knew it was Jensens and Misha’s favorite food. Jensen and Misha were right on time and Jared could only stare at the two gorgeous men standing before him. Misha was wearing a light blue button down that brought out his eyes, Jensen had chosen a plain black shirt and a jacket that showed off his broad shoulders and narrow hips.

“Please come in,” Jared said after a pause. It was a relaxed dinner the three of them talking about everything. So after they had finished their dessert Jensen took a deep breath and started:  
“Jared, thank you for inviting us over, the food was delicious as always. Misha and I have talked a lot about how bad we treated you, there is neither excuse to that nor will there ever be. I can only promise this will never happen again.   
We would like to have you back in our lives, but then I realized the house is Misha’s and my home there was never room for another mate. So we searched for a solution: we want a new start, it should show.   
If you like we start looking for a new home together, starting tomorrow. I made a list of some houses but I would like us looking together as mates.”  
Jensen knew he was babbling at the end but he couldn’t help it he was nervous. Even more nervous than he had been when he had proposed to Misha because of back then he had been certain of Misha’s answer. Whereas Jared’s answer was absolutely unpredictable to him. 

Jared looked at Jensen; that was something he hadn’t expected. He knew how much the house meant to Jensen and especially Misha. But it answered his most burning questions.  
“I invited you here tonight because I wanted to talk about our mating with you. I had the feeling that your perspective of me had changed and maybe you wanted me now. Not just because of the omega act, or because of my good connections or because I’m an engineer, hell not even because I did the wonder of loves. I hoped that you wanted me just because it’s me. “   
Jared looked up and smiled.  
“I know matings between omegas and alpha/betas are different because we don’t need you like a beta needs an alpha. But I want to be together with you not because I have to but because I wanted and chose to.”   
“Jared,” Misha laughed with tears running down his face, “we can promise you a lot but will you give us a chance to prove us to you?”

 

Over the next weeks Jensen, Misha, and Jared checked probably every house on the market. But the right one wasn’t among them. So Jensen and Misha always went to their house and Jared in his apartment. Of course, they kept on playing in the forest, as well as meeting during the week. 

One early spring day, while Jared and Misha met for lunch and were walking through San Mateo they found it. It was an old house in colonial style, a big house with a porch running around it and many rooms to fill with life. It had a nice front yard and the back yard boarded to the forest. With one word it was just perfect. 

Moving in took more time than all three had thought. But with Jensen dealing with Pellegrino’s old pack and the changes there and Jared so busy at Microsoft (as Bill had finally decided to name his enterprise) a lot of work got stuck on Misha. So it took two or three weeks longer than expected till they were able to move in. After they had their first dinner (some sandwiches Jensen had made) Misha held out a blindfold to Jared.   
“We have a surprise for you, can you put this on?” 

With a deep sigh, Jared allowed Jensen to put the blindfold over his eyes. Carefully they lead Jared through the house and then out through the back door.   
“Carefully Jared here are three steps,” Misha instructed.   
They turned him around and took the blindfold off.

On a bed of rocks sat the two moonflowers, carved into two bigger stones were two heart vipers and on top of it encased in acryl was the heart. Misha and Jensen had made a shrine out of the trophies. 

Tears sprang to his eyes. It looked wonderful.  
“Do you like it?” Misha asked with a whisper.  
“I love it. Thank you.”

Carefully and slowly like asking if it was okay, Jared pulled Misha to him leaned down and kissed him tenderly. Jensen watched stunned his mates kissing before his eyes, but there was no jealousy in his heart only love and affection and the desperate wish to join them.  
“Let's get this inside.” He whispered in Jared’s ear. 

Misha was panting, looked like Jared was a really good kisser and Jensen couldn’t wait for a second longer, he pulled Jared down on his lips and kissed him deeply. Yes, Jared was a very good kisser and Jensen found himself looking forward to many years he would be allowed to kiss Jared.

Misha let the way back into the house and upstairs to the master bedroom, which was dominated by the largest bed Jensen had ever seen. The room was held in three different earth colors and was beautiful. Misha had outdone himself to get a part of their three personalities into this room.

It was like a slow dance to music only the three of them could hear. They kissed and touched and undressed each other worshiping every inch of skin exposed. Misha laid down on the bed pulling Jared on top of him. 

“Please make love to me,” Misha begged.   
“Do you want that?” Jensen whispered in his ear.  
Jared couldn’t tear his eyes away from the naked beta laid out before him. How could he resist? He nodded. 

“But I want you, Jensen.” He said.  
“Jared – I can´t …”  
“No I mean, I want you to … while I have Misha, please…” Oh god, Jared hoped his words made some kind of sense because his brain was a little bit low on blood.   
“Yes, I gonna make love to you Jared.”

 

Jared laid between Jensen and Misha and he couldn’t figure out where one ended and the next one began. He was kissing Misha and he was pretty sure the hand caressing his side was Jensen’s but everything else was lost in a warm cocoon of love and lust. 

Some time later he slipped in the warm heat that was Misha and after some time had passed he felt a pressure as Jensen entered him. 

It was an eternity, time lost all meaning. 

Coming all together, a symbiosis of bodies, mind, and soul. 

Or as the fairy tale had put it: the wonder of love, the soul of love and the heart of love.

End


End file.
